Values continue to rise around the regions

Although Auckland continues to cool, the latest QV House Price Index figures show values across the rest of the country are still rising.

According to state-owned valuer Quotable Value, the average value of a New Zealand home rose 11.6% to $556,306 in February from the same month in 2015.  

Values in Kaipara, Waikato and Hauraki have increased more than 5% over the past three months and values in Hamilton rose 22% year on year in February and up 2% on January.

Tauranga values have risen 22.3% year on year with the average value of a property in the city at $565,547. 

Wellington region values increased 6.1% in the year and Christchurch values were up an annual 2.5%.

CoreLogic NZ Ltd Director of Research Jonno Ingerson said in a note most parts of the North Island are now rising in value whereas the South Island has shown patchier trends. 

“Values have picked up in Nelson and Marlborough and are now increasing at over 3% per quarter, considerably faster than we saw last year,” he said. 

“Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes have also accelerated with the latter now increasing at 6.1% over the past quarter, the fastest of anywhere in the South Island. 

“There has been a slight pick-up in the pace of increase in Dunedin, but only to 1.5% over the past three months, so nothing like the increases we are seeing further north.”

When it comes to Auckland, Ingerson says they don’t see values continuing to drop much further or for much longer.

“There remains high demand, driven by record high net migration. And contrary to what you might hear this migration is not ‘foreigners’ that the Government should stop. 

“The biggest contributor to our high net migration is the relative weakness of the Australian economy. We normally lose tens of thousands of kiwis across the ditch. We are currently seeing a net gain as far fewer kiwis are moving to Australia, and high numbers are coming home. The last time we saw a net gain from Australia was in 1991 when the Australian economy was last in recession.”